Councils recognised for e-waste recycling

Product stewardship program MobileMuster has recognised the efforts of local councils in the area of e-waste collection and recycling.

Josh Frydenberg, Federal Government Minister for Environment and Energy commended eight councils from across Australia.

“Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste issues in Australia and it’s great to see MobileMuster bringing industry and local government together to make it easy to recycle and deliver important environmental benefits to our communities”.

The following councils took out top honours in the awards:

National Top Collector per Capita – District Council of Orroroo-Carrieton (SA)

New South Wales Top Collector – Hornsby Shire Council

Northern Territory Top Collector – Alice Springs Town Council

Queensland Top Collector – Queensland – Brisbane City Council

Western Australia Top Collector – City of Stirling

South Australia Top Collector – City of Onkaparinga

Tasmania Top Collector – Burnie City Council

Victoria Top Collector – Moonee Valley City Council

Spyro Kalos, Recycling Manager, MobileMuster, said: “Whilst council collections have been steadily growing in the last couple of years it’s great to see an even higher lift this year with councils helping inform and educate their residents about recycling.”

“In the last year councils have increased their collections by a huge 25 per cent and recycled over 4.5 tonnes of mobiles phone and components through the program.”

Over the last decade local government partners have collected 35 tonnes of mobiles phone components for recycling including approximately 420,000 handsets and batteries.

Mr Kalos said that with an estimated 23 million old mobile phones sitting in drawers waiting to be recycled, including five million which are broken and no longer working, MobileMuster will continue to work with councils to encourage residents to recycle responsibly.